Sunday, April 26, 2015
GIRARD
Western Reserve High standout Aleah Hughes has to conserve energy wherever she can this time of year.
The senior plays volleyball in the fall, basketball in the winter and softball in the spring. And with the recent success of all three teams, the seasons begin to overlap for the Blue Devils’ three-sport athlete.
After throwing a complete game Friday evening, Hughes took Saturday afternoon off from pitching. However that didn’t stop her from torturing Girard at the plate.
Hughes blasted a first-inning home run and drove in three runs, as the Blue Devils hung on for a 5-4 win at Girard.
“It definitely takes time to get into softball mode, especially with my arm,” Hughes said afterward. “Usually I’ll re-train [my arm], but sometimes I just go back to the basics.”
The right-hander said she usually begins throwing toward the end of basketball season, but this year she decided to take some time off for much-needed rest. While her arm make take time to reach mid-season form, her bat has picked up right where it left off last year.
“It’s always a great feeling,” Hughes said of the two-run home run that scored Jenny Stubbs.
“It’s always nice to get a hit to start off the game and it was just perfect timing I guess.”
The Blue Devils (6-5, 5-1 ITCL) added another run in the first to jump out to a 3-0 lead over the Indians, who have found themselves in plenty of early deficits this season.
“We have the first-inning blues for some reason,” Girard coach Renny Paolone said. “I think we’ve given up four or more runs to five teams in our first 11 games.
“We can’t keep digging ourselves holes and that’s what we’ve been doing all year long.”
The Indians (6-5, 3-3 AAC) responded immediately, matching the Blue Devils’ first inning, to tie the game at 3. Annie Parillo, Karlee Byrne and Mackenzie Olesky crossed the plate in the home half of the first for Girard.
From there, both pitchers settled down. Maddie Krietzburg went the distance for Western Reserve with four strikeouts. Rosie Maderitz tossed four innings, striking out five and walking one, to take the loss for Girard.
“Maddie probably hasn’t pitched in over a week because of all the bad weather and rainouts,” Blue Devils coach Joe Serensky said. “Once she settled down after about the third inning, she started locating her pitches in good spots and really did a great job.
“I was really proud of her today.”
Not often is there consolation in a loss, but Paolone liked the Girard team he saw battle Saturday more than the one that got blown out Friday.
“We had good pitching, we played good [defense] and we had runners on base,” he said. “We just couldn’t get the hit when we needed it. And we did a little lineup shake up today, too, after last night.
“Hopefully that will get us going.